Using Facebook’s organic and paid ads to get results

Multiple sources in the industry claim that the Facebook algorithm updates have made it almost impossible to gain the desired organic traction but we disagree.

A change to the algorithms in early 2018 from Mark Zuckerburg himself, stated that the news feed would prioritise content from friends and families as opposed to content from businesses, brands and pages for more meaningful interactions. So how do you go about working with the algorithms for a great success?

Start by creating interactive content that your followers will engage with so that other users, such as their families and friends, will see your content. This simple concept will create perfect exposure for your brand or business. When a user interacts with your content, it will then be shared across multiple news feeds and you’ll start to see your reach statistics take off.

Video content

We are starting to see rather rapidly that video content is on the incline, and this is because it offers a more value packed interaction. Today's consumers aren’t willing to give their attention to lengthy articles when they can watch a 90 second video and get the same information.

Facebook groups

Share your content in groups on Facebook that fit in directly with your demographic, the demographic of your page can be found in the Facebook insights area of your page, so you can easily target your audience for free.

Compose personal messages

Promote your posts directly to someone in your target audience, personalization has proven over decades of advertising to be more successful.

Colour selection

As proven by science the colours used in advertising are all very well thought out, as colours are shown to have an effect on our thought processes, and Facebook advertising is no different.

Utilise Facebook’s features

Facebook has multiple features which will allow you to build up the relationship between you and the customers. Use features such as events, live videos, promotions and the conversation feature which will all work well for building those meaningful interactions.

+ Just by sharing a post on Facebook, you’re increasing your online presence and involvement within your community, and the more high quality content on your site the better.

- Due to the algorithm changes, you won't get the same reach as you would have done previously.

How does social media advertising work?

Facebook will show your advertisement to their millions of users, and every-time a user engages with your promoted content, you’ll be charged. It’s called pay per click advertising and its proven successful with other forms of advertisement like google search ads.

It sounds simple enough, but there’s a few things you should bare in mind when it comes to building successful Facebook ads.

1. Have a goal in mind, what is it that you actually want to achieve for your business by running this campaign? These include increased engagement on your page and increased conversions on your website.

2. Know your audience, using the Facebook insights feature, analyse your audiences and breakdown the traffic that’s flowing through your Facebook page. This will enable you to target your paid advertisements to people within the same or similar demographics to increase the rate of conversions.

3. Facebook’s awesome platform allows you to A/B test within it, so what are you waiting for? If you aren’t familiar with what A/B testing is, we’ve covered that here. But a quick summary is that it allows you to optimise your ad by version testing it to achieve the desired response.

4. What content does your audience find engaging? We previously discussed some general tips for creating engaging organic content, but when it comes to paid ads you need to consider a few more things. Keywords that are performing well in your target audience, what topics are trending and how do your customers find you?

5. If you're running Facebook ads to drive traffic to your online store, creating a landing page is a great way to bump up your conversions. Read our handy blog on landing pages here

6. Install Facebook pixel onto your website so you can build specific audiences for visitors of your site. This means you’ll be able to target an ad to people who are already familiar with your brand, your message and your services. Your ad will serve as a reminder prompt and the click through rate on re targeting is proven to be much higher than targeting a demographic.

+ Targeting capabilities such as; income, age, gender, relationship status, location and so much more.

+ Ability to tweak and optimise your ads with live performance features.

- An increased demand in online advertisement means that the bid prices are going to be much higher than they once were, so it won't be as cost effective.

In conclusion Facebook is a fantastic tool for increasing your brands reach and awareness, especially when you consider how relatively easy it is to do so.